Two Canadians, one American, and a Briton were Four foreigners were kidnapped at gunpoint in a dangerous neighborhood in western Baghdad on Saturday. The British hostage was identified as Norman Kember, a long-time peace activist. Kember and the other three hostages a members of the Christian Peacemakers Team who were in Iraq seeking to document coalition human right abuses.

The group is reported to have been traveling with "minimal security" when they were seized in the west of the city after dark on Saturday. The Jawa Report speculates on what may have happened:

Here is the scenario as it might have happened. A group of peace activists (dubbed 'aid workers' by MSM) go to Iraq trying to prove that the U.S. are the bad guys in Iraq. They then go and talk with the 'resistance' who they believe are the good guys. They are shocked when some terrorists show up at meeting with 'resistance' and kidnap them.

Possibly outcome [sic]? a) Sgrena scenario--terrorists release infidels after they have been paid off and realize hostages are really allies b) Enzo Baldoni scenario--terrorists don't care that hostages there to help, behead the infidels c) rescued by U.S. forces

Canadian Press reports that efforts are underway to negotiate the release of the two Canadians, and presumably the American and Kember.

Update: According to CNN, the Arabic-language channel Al-Jazeera on broadcast a video Tuesday issued by an unknown group showing what it claimed were four hostages. The group, which called itself "the Swords of Justice," said the four were spies and claimed they worked under the cover of "the Christian Peace group."

The Jawa Report has video of the four Western hostages in Iraq, and their identities. The video shows American Thomas Fox of Clear Brook Virginia, Canadian Harmeet Singh Sooden, who resides in Auckland, New Zealand, British citizen Norman Kember, and some one who appears to identify himself as James Loni (last name unclear) of Canada.

The 'truth' about who are the bad guys and who are the good guys doesn't matter to these people. They function in a community that consider the West and specifically the US as evil. Their personal experience will be interpretted as necessary to not disturb their world view.

So much for any leftist notions that if you help the terrorists they'll treat you nice. If anything, they see it as a sign of weakness and kill you first. That goofy notion is just like every other leftist notion, based on lunacy and destined to immediate failure when put into practice, but will be defended at every opportunity, forever. You can teach an old dog new tricks, you can't teach a moonbat of any age anything.

Islamofascists. Does that include Shiite death squads and paramilitary forces operating within the Iraqi police forces that the Administration is putting much of its faith in ensuring a democratic handover? It is still unclear who is behind the latest kidnappings? There are probably several suspects.

In some rare cases, moonbats CAN learn new tricks. I was once so liberal I'd bleed tie-dye, and now I'm a staunch Conservative. 9/11 taught me a helluva lot of tricks I'd been resisting learning up until then--but they stuck, trust me.

Something tells me this event will become a monumental spin project by the MSM. And no matter how many Islamoterrorists brag in public about it, it'll still end up being blamed on Bush and crew.

LJD, Yes I did..No, it is not normally the mo of these paramilitaries to kidnap Westerners, but the article does say that "International human rights organizations have charged that the commando units often arrest and detain civilians without good cause" so they may have been targeted, and then there is the still unresolved case (as far as I know) of the kidnapped and murdered articulate conservative National Review journalist Steven Vincent killed in Basra, in August, for as many believe, reporting these same unpalatable realities the LA Times article mentions. Who knows?

That's quite a stretch. First, the reference to civilians being detained is a reference to IRaqi civilians, not westerners. Second, the group with the long history of kidnapping are the Sunnis, under Saddam, and with foreign terrorists after the fall of his regime.
But who knows? anything is possible, right? Maybe space aliens did it...

While there's the obvious gloating and "I-told-you-so" one could do over these kidnappings, I believe that's a pretty repugnant stance to take. This, frankly, is a situation that most of us wouldn't "wish upon our worst enemy". And I definitely would would include those "enemies" as being liberals, peaceniks, Lefties, moonbats and whatever you wish to call them; it's simply wrong and morally bankrupt to wish ill upon them or to view this as "poetic justice". Yeah, their stupid, wrong most of the time and just plain nasty other times, but to face possible beheading? Well, they don't deserve that; no one does.

I'm sure most people here don't wish that their heads roll, but I'm picking up a small vibe here along those lines and it's kind of disappointing to see. We're better and smarter than that.

Perhaps the best thing to happen to these folks is to have them rescued by the military and come back home and talk about how "glad they were to see them (our military)". And if they don't crow about our military to the likes of Katie Couric & Co, well, then they're the ones that'll have to live with themselves the rest of their lives. They'll be the real losers.

I'm sure someone will tell me to stick it in my ear and blah, blah and they're free to do so. All I'm saying is: Take the higher ground you know where it leads.

If you work for the other side, then you are the enemy. So, the terrorists have captured prisoners of war from their own side! Where is the International Community demanding that they are given Bibles, that the captors wear white gloves, and that only American style food is served. Bring in electricity and air conditioning and hold them to the standards of Club Gitmo. Fricken liberals disgust me to no end...so I say....as Peter would not....OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!

I completely agree, and it's a sad probability, too. I just think, in general, they'll look like idiots in the eyes of the world for doing so and any shred of credibility they have will be utterly lost on any rational and thinking human being.

As the liberals say; that was just me being tongue in cheek. You know, sort like a Senator who was disoriented after driving off the bridge and killing a young woman.

I hope our great military does save their asses. If they continue their errant ways they will look exceedingly foolish. But after all the listening to the shrillness of the left, i'm with Rush Limbaugh about having just a little hidden place to enjoy the glee of unintended results. As the left calls it...schadenfreude! From the old high German for 'pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others'.

I hope for their sakes that those who have them will decide that they really aren't spies and that killing them will play poorly abroad.

I hope for the sakes of future travelers to the region that no one pays for their release. Paying for hostages is only trading one life for the lives of others. If it had to be done directly no one would have the stomach for it.

I agree with Peter F that the vitriol in this thread is repugnant to say the least.

I've done a little reading up on this group and, while one may not agree with their methods or even their underlying objectives, it's a fallacy to paint them as supporters of the rebel groups in Iraq. If anything, they come down quite harshly against violence committed by both sides of this conflict. They're radicals, all right, but I'd at least give them the benefit of calling them radical centrists.

For everyone's sake, I hope the four hostages come out of this alive and are able to continue their work in Iraq. With extremists to both sides, someone needs to look after majority of Iraqis who are caught, like them in the middle of this conflict rather than at either extreme.

You wish them the ability to "continue their work in Iraq". That work is (declared by them) to discover U.S. abuses upon Iraqi civilians. They have gone so far as to blame the U.S. and Britain for the kidnappings (on their website).
If you find it repugnant that some of us can't muster sympathy for enemies of America, that's your problem.

I am certainly not hoping for their beheading (I think they are extremely stupid, dangerous people, not evil), but I don't want American troops put at even greater risk having to rescue the simpletons. No way.